Shatin Park

 This morning Mike went to school to work on report cards (the end is near!), so I thought I'd be on my own with the girls for the day. But he surprised us by coming home at lunch, and we felt like there was still time in the day to be ambitious and do something fun. We decided to do check out Shatin Park, which is close to Snoopy World. I had been there with my mom's group easter egg hunt (which I took pictures and meant to post but never did). It's a really nice park along the river with actual grass and playgrounds and lots of open space. The sun came out, and we were pretty hot and sweaty, but that didn't stop Annie from having fun with hopscotch. 

 We also came across a little street dance happening with a live band playing some lively Chinese numbers. 

 They all seemed to know a choreographed line dance, but we couldn't watch for long because we were looking for the bathroom.

 The river was a nice change of scenery from the ocean and harbor views that there usually is in Hong Kong. 

 And then we rented this bike for an hour so we could ride along the river. We didn't know that's what we'd be doing when we left the house! So fun! And Mike was such a good sport riding us around. I took a turn and almost crashed us so he took over again. Oops! It was harder than it looks!
 These next pictures are of my view from the backseat taken as we zoomed (haha... more like meandered) down the bike trail. 

 A close-up view of the dance!

 A close-up family shot. The first one that the guy took was completely blurry. Take what you can get, I guess!

After we returned the bike, we went to "Triple O's" which is an off-shoot of White Spot. We were so surprised the first time we saw one of those in Hong Kong. Mike's bacon cheeseburger was well-deserved. Mine... not so much...better have salad tomorrow! 

Tooth be told Volume II

Surprise! Another tooth gone...another night of tooth fairy duties coming up!

 Annie's top two teeth have been a bit wiggly for a while, but only just a bit so I wasn't thinking they would come out yet. But at lunch today, Mike had walked to McDonald's across the street to get some lunch (they get SO much business from the teachers and students because it's so close to the school!) and when he came back, Annika was close to the entrance with her classroom EA and was in tears.

Apparently she'd been running in the playground holding hands with Ruby, who can run faster than she can so she can so she ran smack into a boy from another class. She was lying on the ground, and her tooth had fallen on her leg. Weird, but that's the story I got.  

 So, the poor girl has a fat lip and inside her mouth her lip is a bit split, so it was painful to eat, but I'm glad her tooth didn't go through her lip or anything like that. I'm sure she'll be fine by tomorrow! 

I have to admit though that every tooth she loses is making me a bit panicky about how fast she's growing. Kindergarten grad is in a couple of weeks and it's less than two weeks until Leila turns four. GIRLS. YOU. NEED.TO. STOP.GROWING.SO.FAST.ON.ME!

you only have a ten-year wedding anniversary once...

Yesterday was our ten year wedding anniversary. I think we assumed that we would hopefully get a chance to celebrate in summer, but when our friend Jocelyn found out that  our ten year was coming up, she insisted that ten years is too monumental to ignore and that she would take the girls for the night and we could go celebrate. 

The girls were more than happy about this plan. Jocelyn is actually a lot more fun than I am. For example, when I babysit Rachel there's a good chance we might color some pictures and if I am feeling really crazy, we might break out the playdoh. I'd probably give her some goldfish crackers and grapes for a snack. Whereas, this is what Leila has had for snack at Jocelyn's place: she first painted pieces of bread with various colors that had been made with milk with drops of food coloring in it. Then they toasted the bread and after that, she could decorate it by making faces with blueberries and whipped cream. Needless to say, Leila had three or four pieces! Activities on those playdates might consist of carving pumpkins or decorating gingerbread houses- the girls have done both of those things there before. So yeah... they knew they'd be in for a fun night and could hardly wait to see us off! We still hope we can repay the favor and have Rachel sleep here next year once Jocelyn's inlaws have moved back to Canada.

We decided to book a night at Hotel ICON because it is the 2nd ranked hotel in Hong Kong according to Trip Advisor. And the hotel that's ranked 1st costs three times as much as Hotel ICON. It was perfect because it's located in Tsim Sha Tsui (TST), which is fairly close to where we live, and it was too hard to ignore all the raving reviews. 

It really lived up to all the reviews- it's a pretty new hotel and you could tell that attention  

has been paid to every last detail. And from what I understand, the employees are actually students (or interns..I dunno) from a hotel management or hospitality program from a local university. Which explains why they staff are all young, friendly and eager. I think they also now have their Trip Advisor reputation to live up to and don't want to get black-listed! So from all the reviews and pictures (I heart Trip Advisor), our expectations were high, but we weren't let down.

We had booked a standard room, as opposed to club room, or harborview room, but I felt compelled to tell hotel staff during check-in that it was our ten year anniversary. It seemed like she hadn't heard us, but then she said that she was upgrading us to a "club room". Sa-weet! So we were in the top floor and actually our view did have a bit of harbor in it. 

I'm still really annoyed at myself that we had just gotten into our taxi and had driven only a couple of blocks and I realized that I had forgotten to pack the camera, and I'd totally meant to but had gotten distracted with something else. :( So these pictures are all from our phone. What did people do before cell phones?

Fun features of our room included a TV mounted above the bathtub with this welcome message for Mr. Janzen, and the free minibar! And from my readings on Trip Advisor, I think our club minibar was even a little more stocked than the standard mini-bar. How fun is that?! Ever the Voice-of-Logic-Mike pointed out that cans of pop aren't even that expensive when you buy them yourselves at 7-11, because that's all it was- some cans of pop, a couple cans of Carlsberg and some water and juice. Oh and mini M&Ms and almonds. Still... if I haven't said it already...so FUN! AND it had a Nespresso machine all stocked with various types of coffee that I could drink to my heart's content for the one night we were staying there.

And then if the hotel wasn't already good enough, I had been a bit worried about where we should eat because apparently in Hong Kong you need to make reservations. And we aren't all that up on where the hot dining spots are because we we're new here and our criteria is usually "family-friendly" (cheap, bonus for coloring pages with stickers!). We've heard from a few people that Grappas (Italian) is really good, and that seemed anniversary-ish, so I tried to make a reservation the night before and they told us that they were booked full. Disappointing! But we were pretty sure we wouldn't starve since TST is full of restaurants. So once we were settled in, we took our umbrellas and walked through the pouring rain to the heart of TST to find a place to eat. There's a terrace with lots of restaurants that we thought we'd try, and Grappas is right beside, so I suggested we first just walk up and confirm that they really were too full for us. But turns out... no... they weren't full at all. They had a perfect little spot for the two of us! And the food was sooo yummy. Mike had smoked salmon on angel-hair pasta, and I had gnocchi stuffed with sun-dried tomatoes on a bed of smoked mozzarella and pesto sauce. Or something like that, but when I saw all those ingredients listed together, it was a no-brainer. mmmmmmm.... a taste of heaven! And I promise, that glass of wine is not actually the size of my head like it looks in the picture! 

Breakfast was equally lovely with a huge buffet, and aptly named "The Market" since it was set up like a market place cleverly separating the Chinese breakfast items from the more typically Western breakfast items. It was really good, and it was such a treat to be able to sleep in to the ripe old hour of seven a.m. 

These are pictures of our views, and just an aside to Mom and Dad Janzen... if you recall twice when you've been talking on the phone to Mike while we're on the bus going to church, he's talked about going through the Cross-Harbor tunnel, and the one time the phone cut out because we were under the water in the tunnel. In the picture on the left, you can see the cars under the grid-shape. That's the entrance, and then the cars just disappear and come out on the other side onto Hong Kong island. I always think that's crazy that there's an underwater tunnel, so it was enlightening to be able to see how it works from our room 27 stories above! 

We can also point out what lots of the buildings are in the skyline, and were pretty sure we could pick out 18 Farm Road in the distance. 

Enjoying one last moment of peace before heading back to the chaos! One regret is that with the rainy weather we didn't enjoy the skyline swimming pool. It looked really great. Hmmm.... maybe eleven years is also worth celebrating in style?! 

New sofa!

One of the great things about our apartment is that it came furnished, which really made it faster and easier for us to settle in. And with the exception of our sparkly table, we don't mind the look of the furniture. We thought this white couch pictured above shortly after we moved in, was pretty nice and suited the space. We've never had a white couch before, and it was really comfy. That chaise-style is really popular here since most people only have room for one couch and that's it! 

But you can see close to Annika's elbow that the fake leather was looking worn, and it didn't take long for it to start cracking and peeling. Pretty soon, our floor was covered with little white flakes daily, and the more spots that were peeling, the more white flakes all over the apartment. I vacuumed every single day, and within an hour the area rug is full of  white debris again! 

At first we thought we would just live with it since we're here temporarily, but it just got to be too annoying and it just looked worse and worse with big bare patches where it had completely rubbed off. So I started checking Asia Xpat, which is Hong Kong's version of Craig'slist/kijiji. There were always lots of choices, but there were TOO many, and it was daunting to figure out how we'd even go about getting rid of the one we have and how do we get a new one delivered? And where do these people even live who are selling their choices?

Eventually we decided to just look for Ikea couches after paying attention in the store at which ones we like, so when I saw this one listed as being one year old and for only $1000 ($130), we thought we should snap it up! We have noticed that people sell things that are only a few years old  for way less than they paid because most people find it inconvenient to buy from these used websites. Without any way to transport items, it's just easier to buy new and get free delivery. And expats in Hong Kong tend to have money (clearly this girl did who I bought it from- she was practically just giving everything away and she'd only lived here a year!), plus they aren't attached to their items because people are here short-term. 

 The only thing is that I hadn't looked at the measurements closely until it was almost time to go look at it (and I'd already booked movers, so I was pretty committed to buying it sight unseen!). Even though it looks normal-sized in the store and in the pictures, with Hong Kong sized apartments, it is a bit of a beast! I almost canceled the whole thing, but we decided to go for it, and fortunately it fits... whew...

 Annie's sitting at the table doing her homework (as usual it seems!) while Mike and Leila have a mini-concert.

Leila's new potty (which she loves, hooray!) also double as a drum! And you can see we had to move our toy shelf/bookcase/dish cabinet to beside the TV because the couch is bigger. But It works! Now what am I going to do with my time now that I don't have to check Asia xPat three times a day? haha

Mother's Day Tea

Wow, I know it's been a while since I posted (meant to write about Annika's field trip to Crossroads, Mike as "Mystery Reader", my birthday at the beach, etc etc but just didn't get to it), but in the meantime, Blogger totally changed it's format and I'm finding it difficult to navigate. I don't feel like trying to figure something new out- blogging takes enough time as it is! So sorry if this comes out looking weird.
Anyway, yesterday was the long-awaited Mother's Day tea with the kindergarten classes at CAIS. As I mentioned on FB, Annika was SO excited for it, and trying very hard to keep everything secret. Each of the five kindergarten classes did something. Annika's class did actions to "The Power of Your Love", which explains why she's been humming it for the past couple of weeks. It was really sweet. 

After all the classes had performed, they all gathered on the stage and had two poems and a song with their Mandarin teacher. That is one area where Annie's anxiety gets the best of her, and she said she was too shy to sing/recite, but she had told me the poems and sang the song at home, and even though I don't understand a word she is saying, it sounds believable to me! I love hearing her speak in Mandarin!

This is Annika's class and all the mom's gathered at the end for a group picture. 

Annika posing by her flower. 

 

And... this is what Leila's hair looked like yesterday at the Mother's Day tea. I think I am so anxious to have my own hair cut (but am trying to wait until July), that I spontaneously stopped by a local place as we were walking by, and she has her own new summer 'do!

Yikes... it's a bit shorter than I envisioned and Mike hasn't even seen it yet, so hopefully he'll like it. But she still looks cute, doesn't she?